For me, Bree's reaction to Bella's scent, even from a distance, really made the sacrifice of the Cullens come alive. When Bree smells Bella, it is acutely painful. I know she is a newborn, and has never tried to resist human blood, but it is still shocking to read her visceral longing for Bella's blood. The Cullens have been enduring it for a year. No wonder Jasper lunged when she bled.

The only thing that I'm curious about is where were Alice, Emmett and Rosalie in all of this? They didn't seem to pay Bree any mind...

The part with Jasper kind of confused me, though. He just made her sit on the ground like a dog but I wouldn't have thought that he was trying to provoke her. I just figured her "feelings of frustation" came from Jasper's own.

I agree with you Openhome. You forget just how intense Bella's scent is to the Cullens and how much self control is needed, especially for Edward. Seeing Bella from Bree's viewpoint really put things into perspective as such.

I thought it was fascinating having the Cullens described from someone else's viewpoint.

"And so the lion fell in love with the lamb" "...What shoes had Alice put me in? Stilettos? She'd lost her mind..."

I must confess that, seeing Bree react to Jasper's emotions, my first thought was that she had some talent to read emotions herself. It didn't make sense to me that he would be passing these emotions on to her with his gift. It never occurred to me that he was trying to provoke her, especially since the last emotion she senses from him is fear as the Volturi approaches, unless he was hoping she'd run.

What's more, when the Volturi appears she says, "There was something more to them than I could see, but I could definitely feel it. These were the punishers, and they didn't lose." (pg 165). So I thought she might have a milder version of Jasper's gift. There's no mention of it in the guide, though, so I guess I was reading too much into it.

edwardlikeshaystacks wrote:The part with Jasper kind of confused me, though. He just made her sit on the ground like a dog but I wouldn't have thought that he was trying to provoke her. I just figured her "feelings of frustation" came from Jasper's own.

Tornado wrote:I must confess that, seeing Bree react to Jasper's emotions, my first thought was that she had some talent to read emotions herself. It didn't make sense to me that he would be passing these emotions on to her with his gift. It never occurred to me that he was trying to provoke her, especially since the last emotion she senses from him is fear as the Volturi approaches, unless he was hoping she'd run.

I can't remember what I thought the first two times through, more than 6 months ago, but this time I was thinking that Jasper was inadvertently projecting some of his own feelings, which would have been pretty intense, and maybe his guard was down after the battle. I remember thinking that his fear might have been that Bree would make a break for Bella, his fear that his brother might be distressed (in several ways) by a threat to Bella, and then associated guilt remembering when he (Jasper) almost killed Bella. Fear that he would have to stop Bree from hurting Bella, even have to kill her? But maybe it was fear of the Volturi, which makes sense too, given that they want Alice.

I thought that maybe he had Bree sit on the ground in the smoke from the fire to protect Bella from her, to impede her vision and/or sense of smell. If so, didn't work well enough.